0
Certainly, I can see how folks would not want to be forced to lose mechs that they worked hard for. There's a reason why most games these days don't have real looting of other players' corpses any more. Lots of folks don't like that.
However, it occurred to me that some percentage of us would in fact like to play in battles where that kind of thing was in the line. It'd be something akin to racing for pink slips. Generally, how I see it working:
- If your mech is destroyed, you lose that mech.
- If you disconnect, your mech is destroyed, and you lose that mech.
- There could, perhaps, be some mechanism for retreating... Perhaps an extraction zone where, after being there for X amount of time, you are removed from the battle. Although I would tend to suggest that this be fairly wide open, so if you get pushed back to your extraction zone, you're gonna have to dig in and defend, or you're just gonna die there instead.
- If your mech was destroyed, but your team won, you get it back. You'll still have the same repair costs that you would normally incur.
- All enemy mechs and equipment are salvaged, per a percentage roll on each mech and piece of equipment, and then divided up among the victors. Either through random rolls (ie, some kind of standard MMO type loot distribution system), or maybe even having a commander assign the loot (would really only work when a team is comprised of an organized unit).
Makes high risk battles a choice:
By linking this to a specific game type, this type of gameplay becomes totally voluntary. It's not forced upon folks who perhaps want a more casual game, but it's there for folks who want it.
Helps encourage deployment underused "cheap" mechs:
In this type of game, you end up rewarding pilots who use the "trash" mechs to great effect. You can risk less, by piloting a cheaper mech, but potentially salvage much more expensive equipment. Some additional consideration must be made whether you really want to drop in that shiny Atlas, because you're gonna be losing a lot more money than if you just lose a hunchback. You're gonna lose that entire mech, and all of its equipment.
As a result, I think you may likely see a bunch of battles in this type where a ton of lights and mediums are running around because they're relatively cheap... Of course, it also means that it could be easy pickings for a heavy mech with a good pilot, if he wants to risk being swarmed and losing his fancy ride. Especially since the other pilots are gonna say, "Hey now! Take down the fancy guy over there! I want his stuff!"
So, over all, I think this has potential to add some significantly cool elements. Some potential issues:
- Without fail, you'll have some guy cry that his router crapped out, and that he wants his mech back, because it was't his fault... or someone would cry haxxor, or whatever. To head this off, I'd just put a disclaimer on the game type: There are no refs who can possibly refund your mech, no matter what. Don't bother complaining to anyone. If you don't like this rule, then don't play this game type. It may be harsh to the handful of folks who lose a mech in this way, but really, I'd rather just have a "no refunds" rule, than have the developers say something like, "Well, sounds kind of cool, but I don't want to have to pay some guy to sift through a billion whining emails." So, I'd say no refunds. Play at your own risk.
